# Disabling "enable names" makes admin act strange

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/disabling-enable-names-makes-admin-act-strange/291912
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [January 17, 2024, 7:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disabling-enable-names-makes-admin-act-strange/291912 "2024-01-17T07:44:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 49

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### Author: ![kris.kotlarek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/kris.kotlarek/32/176919_2.png) [@kris.kotlarek](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kris.kotlarek)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2025, 5:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disabling-enable-names-makes-admin-act-strange/291912/49 "2025-06-13T05:31:01Z")

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> [@mdoggydog](#):
>
> This PR is a prerequisite for the subsequent one(s), ensuring that `Guardian` instances actually get passed from one serializer to the next. Details are in the PR/commit-message. The conversation about this PR might as well get started while I prepare the next one.

I am sorry, but I have to reject this PR. That change is too complex and hard to maintain. The main reasons are:

- Scope is not always required and should not be enforced;
- Changing and later maintaining it in all the places, like plugins, would be an enormous amount of work;
- `PlaceholderGuarian` is not solving the problem but adding a fake scope (with the intention to fix later);
- Most of the time, serialisation should be happening in the controller, and the scope will be added automatically.

Displaying a username or full name based on group is quite tricky. Instead of trying to merge it into core Discourse, can we start by creating a plugin? If your community is small, this is how it can work:

- Set `SiteSetting.enable_names` to false to always use username;
- Define an endpoint that would return a map of username → full name for TL3 users;
- Use `formatUsername` API call to add full name or replace for TL3 users - [https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/lib/plugin-api.gjs#L1711](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/lib/plugin-api.gjs#L1711)

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